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The flip side of honour
Power of truth WITH reference to the article Freedom of truth (June 20), I agree that truth is indeed the biggest power. It can change destinies. Unfortunately, in our country truth means death. We have lost many heroes because they spoke the truth about different governments and their policies regarding the common man. Here, truth has been overshadowed by lies. We have to wait and see when it will turn the situation otherwise. ABIDA HUSSAIN GHILZAI Faisalabad ‘Allah Hafiz’ or ‘Khuda Hafiz’? WITH reference to Intizar Hussain’s contributions ‘Allah Hafiz’ or ‘Khuda Hafiz’? (June 20), it is poignant to notice that the transformation of Khuda Hafiz to Allah Hafiz as a goodbye phrase has been made controversial by columnists who at first, regard it to be unintelligible and then present their own interpretations, thus making a mountain out of a mole hill. Intizar Hussain has hypocritically termed this transformation to be “indicative of anti-Iranian trend or expressive of anti-Persian attitude — or has something to do with hostility towards Urdu’s idiomatic expression”. Furthermore he says that the word Khuda has undergone a long process at the hands of Muslim scholars, assimilating devotional feelings and thoughts we associate with Allah. From this he concludes that Khuda has gained a status equivalent to that of Allah. The fact is that the prolonged use of any word in any language in a particular sense does not convey a message that the word has same meaning. Similar is the case with the word Khuda. In Farhang-i-Asfia, an authentic Urdu dictionary, it is written that Khuda Hafiz “is a pray phrase which one person says to the other while parting”. In the same dictionary it is written that Allah Hafiz means “a pray, Allah is the Guardian (and I leave you at His disposal).” One thing is very clear that Khuda Hafiz is not an idiom but a compound word of a Persian word Khuda and an Arabic word Hafiz. As Allah and Hafiz both are Arabic words, Khuda Hafiz is correct and Allah Hafiz is accurate. We also find this word on Page 791 of the dictionary published by the Urdu Dictionary Board (based on historical rules), meaning “Khuda Hafiz, in the custody of Allah, at the behest of Allah”. Apart from its literary connotations, this problem has a religious aspect too. Allah is the name of God Almighty. The glory and dignity present in this word has no alternative. The fire worshippers of Persia used to have two gods, “Ahermann” of evil and “Yazdaan” of good. And since the Muslims are strict monotheists, it is more suitable to their taste to say the word Allah than Khuda. MUHAMMAD UZAIR Rawalpindi Policing Karachi WITH reference to Shoaib Suddle’s interview, Policing Karachi is no joke (June 20), I was deeply inspired by the conversation that the head of a department was able to have. We never trust our police and it is in our psychology that unless we don’t trust people who work for us, we’ll never be able to treat them positively — and this trait can never benefit us. DR MANSOOR HASSAN SHAIKH Larkana | ||
WITH reference to the article The flip side of honour (June 13), the media is trying to perform its duty by informing the masses about many crimes being committed on a regular basis, such as the crime of honour killing.|
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